Tom Waddle, Jim Harbaugh and the missing Rolex

I spoke with former Bears wide receiver Tom Waddle last week for this newspaper story on Jim Harbaugh and Waddle told an amusing story about a gift he never received from his old quarterback.

In 1993, Harbaugh was the quarterback behind a “five-blocks-of-pumice offensive line,” as Sports Illustrated’s Austin Murphy once wrote. In 15 games that season, Harbaugh was sacked 43 times, the second-most in the NFL.

“It was a line that was just a spectacular crew for years that was coming to the end,” Waddle said. “With Jay Hilgenberg, and Tom Thayer, and Mark Bortz, and Keith Van Horne … Those guys had all has such great careers, but they were just in their eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th years and they just didn’t have anything left. And Jim took the brunt of it.”

Waddle went on to note, with great admiration, that Harbaugh never criticized his leaky line. Never even subtly called them out in an attempt to explain his own struggles. In fact, Harbaugh presented his linemen with Rolex watches near the end of the season. He even gave a Rolex to Frank Kmet, an offensive lineman who had spent most of the season playing defense.

For his part, Waddle ended the year with two busted shoulders – “a high pass here, a high pass there,” he explained. And nearly 20 years later, Waddle is still miffed that Frank Kmet got a Rolex and …

“I got five days at Northwestern Memorial getting both my shoulders fixed. I’m still waiting for my watch,” Waddle said, laughing. “Of course, I say that with love in my voice because there’s no teammate I’ve ever played with that I have more respect for than Jim Harbaugh.”